This is a survey of those between the ages of 18-38 years old that grew up in religious homes. Our goal is to come up with data points of key influences that either encouraged or deterred the participants from practicing the same faith as their parents. Dr. Brian Ray, a decades-long experienced researcher, is the principal investigator and will confidentially analyze the data. We will use the statistics from this survey to help equip parents to make more informed decisions in the education and spiritual guidance of their children. All results are anonymous. We greatly appreciate your participation in this effort.

I’d like to encourage everyone who is between age 18 and 38 and grew up in a religious home of any kind to fill out the survey and pass it on to their friends (via twitter, facebook, blogging, etc.). Yes, Ray et al. are trying to find a pattern so as to prevent the loss of adherents—they’re aware that Millenials are less religious than previous generations—but I don’t think telling our own experiences as those who have left or at the very least moved in a different direction can hurt, especially given that the survey ends with a text box asking for any further input. We might as well let them know we’re out there!

This survey is being shared from person to person, meaning that it’s not going to get a random sample. That means it’s really not very scientific at all—though given Brian Ray’s track record in this kind of thing, it will still be passed off as though it is. Lana of Wide Open Ground received this email about the survey from a Christian homeschool leader:

After 30 years of a homeschool movement, we’ve learned something of the academic success and the socio-economic successes by various surveys. But what about the spiritual condition of the graduates of this first generation of home education? How did we do? What were the educational, cultural, relational, and spiritual influences in our children’s lives, and where are they today?

From all reports, the millennial generation is less committed to a Christian worldview; they’re leaving the institutional church; and they are the most narcissistic, the laziest, the most unsuccessful, and the most spiritually bankrupt generation ever. (Reference: here; here).

So. . . what about our children? What is the condition of our homeschool graduates? What happened to those children raised in Christian homes back in the 1990s? Where are they now?

Introducing. . . The Gen 2 Survey.

We have released the Generation 2 survey for every young person (18-35 years of age), Christian, Non-Christian, Public Schooled, Private Schooled, and Home Schooled.

The survey is anonymous (there is no tracing of answers to sources). It will take 10-20 minutes to complete, and each participant enters a contest to win one of THREE I-PAD MINI’s!

Please pass this survey on to every young person 18-35 years of age that you know (preferably raised in Christian homes in the 1980s, 1990s, and 2000s)! Pass it along to churches, homeschool support groups, or any family you know with older children.

If this isn’t proof that this survey is unscientific, I don’t know what is. And further, if this isn’t proof that we shouldn’t also have our say, well, again, I don’t know what is. Fill out the survey and let its makers know how you feel. Let’s not let them have any excuse to deny our existence.

I do want to be clear, though: This survey is only for those who are between the ages of 18 and 38 and grew up in religious homes. Do not screw with this survey. If you qualify, answer it honestly. If you don’t, don’t.

If you want to know what sort of questions are asked—and trust me, it’s interesting—anyone can view them by flipping through the survey with or without filling out the answers. Some of the questions are obviously leading, some are impossible to answer (how do you rank how close to or distant from God you feel when you don’t believe there is a God in the first place, for instance?), and some seem odd if the survey really is meant for anyone raised in a religious home and not just for homeschoolers (for instance, the question about what kind of homeschool groups your parents were involved in).

When I filled out the survey it said I would receive an email when the results come out, so I’ll keep you posted!

Spiritual Abuse Survivor Blogs Network member, Libby Anne blogs at Love, Joy, Feminism Libby Anne grew up in a large evangelical homeschool family highly involved in the religious right. College turned her world upside down, and she is today an atheist, a feminist, and a progressive. She blogs about leaving fundamentalist and evangelical religion, her experience with the Christian Patriarchy and Quiverfull movements, the problems with the “purity culture,” the intricacies of conservative and religious right politics, and the importance of feminism. Her blog is Love, Joy, Feminism

Too bad this survey is limited to a certain age group. I’m 60 and well beyond the age limit, but would love to participate. I grew up in a strict Baptist home with very religious parents, particularly my mother. We were in church every time the door opened and were expected to be perfect Christian children. It seemed that everything was forbidden and and every minor discretion would send you to hell. You name it, it was a sin. It took me most of my adult life to understand that I’d grown up in a cult-like atmosphere, although the name on our church belonged to a major denomination. That upbringing damaged me socially, spiritually, and emotionally. It destroyed my faith and turned me into an agnostic, bordering on atheism.

Independent Thinker

I grew up in the same boat in a southern Baptist church with my mother being the primary religious influence in the home. I went to one of those churches that had a new boycott every week. I think the only approved fast food restaurant was Chic-fil-a because there was a line around the building after church however the McDonald’s next door had practically an empty parking lot. We couldn’t watch anything put out by Disney because of their support of gay days. We couldn’t read Harry Potter books or watch the movies because of the “encrypted satanic messages”. I don’t remember when it happened but one time I put red nail polish on my toe nails and my mother practically had a heart attack. That issue was addressed with my youth pastors not surprisingly. I am in the age bracket for the survey and did fill it out. If I ever have the slightest desire to look back on the “good old days” there are several You Tube clips of my former church online to remind me of why that chapter of my life closed very quickly once I left home.

texcee

I had to laugh at the red nail polish comment. My mother always gave the impression that her older sister was a slut because she wore red nail polish. “Nice” women didn’t do such things. Funny because Aunt Christine was just as religious as the rest of family, but liked to be “stylish”.

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